Hardware
and Software Prerequisites
Installing or Upgrading
ADO.NET in a Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET
Uninstalling ADO.NET in a
Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET
ADO.NET in a Nutshell for Visual Studio
.NET Quick Tour
O’Reilly'sADO.NET in a Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET
is a Microsoft Help 2.0 collection that plugs directly into the
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
Before you can install this product, the following software must be installed on your system:
Any version of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, including “unbundled”
versions of the product, such as Microsoft Visual Basic .NET.
ADO.NET in a
Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET is not
guaranteed to work with beta or Release Candidate versions of Visual
Studio .NET.
ADO.NET in a
Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET has no
additional requirements.
O’Reilly
publishes two versions of ADO.NET
in a Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET: one for Visual Studio
.NET 2002 (sometimes referred to as Version 1.0) and one for Visual
Studio .NET 2003. To install or upgrade ADO.NET in a Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET:
1. Uninstall previous versions of ADO.NET
in a Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET.
2. Ensure that either Visual Studio.NET 2002
or Visual Studio .NET 2003 is installed and operational on your system,
but not currently running. For information on installing and upgrading
Visual Studio .NET, please refer to its installation instructions.
3. Shut down any anti-virus software running
on your system..
4. Ensure you are logged in to your system with an account that
has administrative privileges. Select the installation file appropriate
for the version of Visual Studio .NET that you have installed:
· For Visual Studio .NET 2002
(sometimes referred to as Version 1.0) select ADO.NETinaNutshell-vs2002.msi
· For Visual Studio .NET 2003
(sometimes referred to by its code name Everett) select ADO.NETinaNutshell-vs2003.msi
5. Double-click on the installation file you have selected (ADO.NETinaNutshell-vs2002.msi or ADO.NETinaNutshell-vs2003.msi ) and follow the instructions presented by the installer program. The program will take a few minutes to load while Visual Studio .NET reindexes its Help collection to incorporate the new ADO.NET in a Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET pages.
6. Once the installation is complete, click on
Finish and open your copy of Visual Studio .NET. Select Help →
Contents… from the Visual Studio .NET menu. Look for the O’Reilly Help
icon in the Contents window.
To uninstall ADO.NET in a Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET:
1. From the Windows Control Panel, select
Add/Remove Programs.
2. In the Add/Remove Programs window, select O’Reilly ADO.NET in a
Nutshell and click Remove.
ADO.NET in a
Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET is a special
online version of the API Quick Reference section (Part III) of ADO.NET in a Nutshell (O’Reilly &
Associates, Inc., 2003), by Bill Hamilton and Matthew
MacDonald (ISBN 0-596-00361-7). Once
installed, the API
Quick Reference is a fully integrated member of Visual Studio .NET Dynamic Help
and continuously available to you as you work in the Visual Studio .NET development
environment.
By making ADO.NET in a Nutshell a part of your online development environment, you gain the ability to:
· access the ADO.NET API Quick Reference online as you work in the Visual Studio .NET development environment
· browse the API Quick Reference table of contents and find relevant entries using the Visual Studio .NET Help Contents window
· see continuously updated links to API Quick Reference entries displayed in the Visual Studio .NET Dynamic Help window as you code your application
· find Reference entries quickly using the Visual Studio .NET Help Search facility or interactive Index
· link quickly to related API Quick Reference pages using embedded cross-references
· find more information on the members of a given type using the embedded MSDN Library member details URL
· link to the O’Reilly web site, www.oreilly.com, for additional books and articles on Visual Basic .NET and the .NET Framework
For information
on how to read API Quick Reference entries, please read Chapter 32, “How
to Use This Quick Reference”, of the print version of ADO.NET in a Nutshell.
For a quick
overview of the features of the online version of ADO.NET in a Nutshell, you might try the
following:
1. Tour
the API Quick Reference TOC:
To display the table of contents of
the ADO.NET in a Nutshell API Quick Reference, first select Help → Contents… on
the Visual Studio .NET menu. Once the Contents window is open,
double-click on the O’Reilly Help icon. If the icon fails to appear,
select the no filter option from the Filtered by: drop-down list
ADO.NET in
a Nutshell appears as a
volume in the O’Reilly Help collection, along with other O’Reilly titles
you may have installed. The TOC is sorted alphabetically by .NET
namespace name (e.g., System.Data, System.Data.Common,
System.Data.SqlClient, and so on) and within each namespace by type name
(e.g., AcceptRejectRule enum, CommandBehavior enum, and so on). A
complete alphabetical listing of all types in the reference is available
by selecting Alphabetical List of Types at the end of the TOC.
As an exercise,
find and read the entry for the System.Data.Dataset in the Nutshell TOC.
2. View
continuously updated links to relevant API Quick Reference entries
while you’re coding:
Because ADO.NET in a Nutshell is fully integrated with Visual Studio .NET, you can use the Dynamic Help feature to display links to pertinent API Quick Reference topics as you code. To use Dynamic Help, select Help → Dynamic Help from the Visual Studio .NET menu.
As an exercise,
open a Visual C# Console Application and type the statement “using
System.Data.Common;” at the top of the page. As you do so, the Help
system displays links to API Quick Reference descriptions for the
System.Data namespace and then the System.Data.Common namespace in the
Dynamic Help window. Note that all links to O’Reilly API Quick Reference pages appear in a separate link group in the
Dynamic Help Window that’s labeled O’Reilly Help. Click on an O’Reilly
Help link, and note the page that is displayed.
3. Use
the Visual Studio .NET Help Index to find API Quick Reference
information on a topic:
The Visual
Studio .NET Help system includes an index to all Help files, including
those from ADO.NET in a
Nutshell. To search the Help
index, first open the Index window by selecting Help → Index… from the
Visual Studio .NET menu. Use the Look For: box to jump to index entries
that most closely match what you have in mind. The specific Help pages
related to an index entry are displayed in a separate Index Results
window. You open an Index Results window
by selecting Help → Index
Results… from the Visual Studio .NET
menu.
As an exercise, open the Index window and an Index Results window and enter “DataSet class” into the Index Look for: box. Click on the Index entry that appears and observe the results displayed in the Index Results window. Double-click on any entry whose Location name is ADO.NET in a Nutshell to see a corresponding page from the API Quick Reference.
4. Search
for API Quick Reference information on a specific .NET namespace or
type:
To
search for information on a particular topic in the API Quick
Reference, as well as MSDN and other documentation, select Help → Search
from the Visual Studio .NET menu. Enter your search keywords in the
Search Look for: box, use the Filter box and check boxes to restrict
your search, and then click on the Search button. The specific Help
pages most closely related to your search keywords are displayed in a
separate Search Results… window. You open a
Search Results window by selecting Help → Search Results… from
the Visual Studio .NET menu.
As an exercise, use the
Search window to find information on the SqlString struct. Type the
words “SqlString struct” into the Search Look for: text box and click on
the Search button. Double-click on any
entry in the Search Results window whose Location is ADO.NET in a
Nutshell.
5. Link
to other API Quick Reference entries and MSDN Library details
To link to related API
Quick Reference entries or MSDN Library member details, simply click on
any word or phrase that is underlined and highlighted in blue.
Most API Quick Reference entries contain cross-references to pages that
document related core types or other information (such as formatting
codes and regular expression syntax). In addition, any API Quick
Reference entry that documents a type also includes a link to the
corresponding Members page in the MSDN Library for additional details
not found in the API Quick Reference members list.
As an exercise, use
the Index to find the O’Reilly API Quick Reference entry for the
DataRelation class. The API Quick Reference entry for each ADO.NET type
includes a complete list of its members and their signatures, whose
syntax is described using the C# language. For additional information on
DataRelation class members, find and click on the link labeled MSDN Library
member details.
You can also
cross-reference related pages in the API Quick Reference by clicking on
their links. As an exercise, return to the DataSet class entry and click
on the link to DataTable.
Version 1.0 of ADO.NET in a Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET is
the first release of this software and is based on ADO.NET in a Nutshell, (O’Reilly &
Associates, Inc., 2003), by Bill Hamilton and
Matthew MacDonald. The software will work with any
commercial release of Visual Studio .NET, including Visual Studio .NET
2002 with or without Service Pack 1 (SP1), and Visual Studio .NET 2003.
Like the book, this reference documents the ADO.NET namespaces and types
of the .NET Framework 1.1 release. For a list of backwards and forwards
breaking changes developers will encounter in moving between .NET
Framework 1.0 and .NET Framework 1.1, please see Compatibility
Considerations and Version Changes at the Microsoft-sponsored
GotDotNet community website.
The O’Reilly Books filter is a new
feature that is not supported by VB.NET Language in a Nutshell or VB.NET
Core Classes in a Nutshell. If either of these volumes is installed
with Visual Studio .NET, selection of the O’Reilly Books Filter by…
option will cause the reference to disappear from the Help Contents
window, as well as from the Search Results and Index Results windows.
To display all O’Reilly volumes choose the (no filter) Filter by…
option.
ADO.NET in a
Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET is an experiment for both
O’Reilly and Microsoft, and we want very much to hear your comments.
Your feedback will help us decide how to make future releases of the
product more useful to you whether to create Visual Studio .NET adds for
other titles in the O’Reilly .NET Nutshell series.
Please
send your comments and suggestions about ADO.NET in a Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET to:
If you discover errors in the content or encounter any problems in using ADO.NET in a Nutshell for Visual Studio .NET, please report them to:
To read about known bugs and bug
fixes reported by users of our Visual Studio add-ins or by O’Reilly, or
to learn of product updates and other information, please link to the
O’Reilly Visual Studio Add-in web page at:
http://www.oreilly.com/vsaddin/
To report or read about known errata in the text of the book, please link to
its errata page at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/adonetian/errata/
Copyright © 2003 O’Reilly &
Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Other companies and products
mentioned in this document are the property of those companies.